Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

RetailLatest NewsJob creation and lossesOutsourcingRedundancy

Three hundred jobs lost at John Lewis call centre

by Ashleigh Webber 9 Dec 2019
by Ashleigh Webber 9 Dec 2019 John Lewis' Oxford Street store.
Shutterstock
John Lewis' Oxford Street store.
Shutterstock

More than 300 jobs at an outsourced John Lewis customer contact centre have been culled as the retailer attempts to expand both its in-house and overseas customer service operations.

The staff, who are based at an outsourced call centre in Plymouth run by US company Sitel, have either already left the company or will leave by 20 December after they were told in October that they will be  made redundant.

Outsourcing jobs

Outsourcing: How the IWGB nearly overturned collective bargaining rules

Does TUPE apply where an outsourcing contract comes to an end and a new contractor is engaged?

A spokesperson for the John Lewis Partnership said the job losses were part of plans to increase the number of roles at its in-house customer contact centre.

Although John Lewis was ramping-up operations at a site in Manila which handles “non-verbal” queries, the spokesperson denied that this was related to the job losses in Plymouth.

The spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we are reducing the scale of our operations at the site in Plymouth. This is part of a wider strategy to strengthen the capacity of our in house contact centres in order to further support and service our customers.”

One worker at the Plymouth site told the Guardian: “It seems ludicrous. People have trained for the last year or two to get to grips with the complexity of the John Lewis customer services systems. New people with no cultural experience will be starting from scratch in the Philippines.”

Sitel had not commented on the job losses at the time of publication.

In October the John Lewis Partnership announced plans to cut a third of senior management jobs from February 2020 and merge the management teams for John Lewis and Waitrose into a single team. About 75 jobs are expected to be lost in the management restructure.

HR roles in retail and wholesale on Personnel Today


Browse more HR roles in retail and wholesale

Ashleigh Webber
Ashleigh Webber

Ashleigh is editor at OHW+ and part of the Personnel Today editorial team. Prior to joining Personnel Today in 2018, she covered the road transport sector for Commercial Motor and Motor Transport.

previous post
‘Fulfilling’ jobs for older workers could benefit health and wellbeing
next post
Supreme Court’s unfair dismissal ruling in Royal Mail case gives pause for thought

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

Trade body for outsourcing providers launched

6 Jan 2021

From compliance to compassion: research shows how priorities...

16 Dec 2020

Remote working could lead to jobs being pushed...

23 Nov 2020

Are cleaning services ready for the frontline?

15 May 2020

Outsourcers pool staff over public sector Covid-19 challenge

27 Mar 2020

Key London NHS trust to directly employ 1,000...

31 Jan 2020

MyPayrollHR boss charged with $70m bank fraud

26 Sep 2019

Payroll provider withdraws wages from thousands of clients’...

13 Sep 2019

An in-depth guide to HRO: How is HR...

15 Jul 2019

Top 10 HR questions June 2019: Ex-employee grievances

2 Jul 2019
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+